eBay to Shift More Business to UPS

[val2525]

www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/09/19/usps-ebay-mail-delays/?fbclid=IwAR2nQfEZd5m-hkoXvAA6xQpkmCgX6DGNcnFeLzLur9PbwG-sxPDufROUZ-E

The online auction and sales site eBay, one of the U.S. Postal Service’s biggest customers, said it is shifting some of its business to private-sector rival United Parcel Service because of reliability issues with the agency.

“Customers want and expect to receive their packages in the fastest and most reliable way possible, which is why our collaboration with UPS comes at such a critical moment,” eBay vice president Marni Levine, who had previously expressed concerns about the Postal Service’s decreasing on-time delivery rate, wrote in a message to eBay sellers announcing the deal with UPS.

The company said that by the end of September, eBay sellers will be able to print out discounted UPS shipping labels, at a cost up to 62 percent cheaper than typical UPS rates.

For the Postal Service, the loss of eBay revenue could be substantial: A spreadsheet of the Postal Service’s largest customers prepared last spring showed the e-commerce site was agency’s second-largest retail customer, shipping more than 130 million items up to that point in the fiscal year. The USPS generated more than $743 million in revenue from eBay packages in that fiscal year while grappling with a $160.9 billion deficit.

EBay is second only to Amazon, which generated more than $2.3 billion in revenue for USPS during the same time frame, and whose business top Postal Service managers were fearful of losing, The Washington Post reported this week.


I'd have no problem switching to UPS if the rates were lower for packages under 2 lbs.

[chapeaunoir]

The problem I have with UPS is that not all customers can receive their packages - PO boxes, for example, and if they can't be left on the stoop, the customer has to pick them up at the depot - for me that's a 20 mile round trip. Also, will these rates also cover rural delivery which is surcharged? I agree with the under 2 lb - that would need to be fixed.

Mercari already uses UPS for their second tier (weight) shipping.

[Pantlandia]

Unless they can compete with less than $3 for shipping media, I won't use them. Also, items like mine can fit in a mailbox, even at an apartment building, so the thought of UPS dumping it on a doorstep where it can easily be stolen is not very enticing.

[Desire]

How will UPS get the bulk of our packages? If we have a UPS package pick-up here they charge for the pick-up, and they come late in the day, after 5PM. I would have to drive much farther than to our Post Office to get to the nearest UPS drop-off box. And I don't trust dropping packages in the big UPS drop-off boxes, they are in obscure parking lot areas around here.

At least with USPS pickup, my carrier scans them right when she picks them up from my mailbox or porch pick-up. If I take them to the actual Post office, I drop them on the counter unless it's an expensive item or a fussy buyer, then I get it scanned. But I do trust the PO service.

I have so much trouble with FedEx and UPS deliveries here with boxes left out on our stone wall instead of on the porch near the door, or they actually leave packages in front of our garage doors. Our garage is attached to the house, you can't see the front of our garage doors from inside the house. If I get into my vehicle and then press the garage door opener inside the vehicle to open the door, I will back out over the box if it's dropped there, as I can't see it from inside the vehicle. They don't have the common sense to leave the box in front of the space BETWEEN the garage doors, they leave it right in front of the overhead door. I shudder to think of my ebay package being delivered by these carriers.

[val2525]

Several retailers have UPS drop off services. The CVS by me takes UPS packages and they're actually closer than the post office.

[kritter]

If we have a choice, I will stick with USPS. Easier for me all the way around.

My post office relocated not that far from my house and going there gets me out of the house instead of being a Covid hermit.

[zoesam]

It's been obvious that they are doing this, but I'm not switching. I don't think buyers want UPS. I certainly don't. I hate UPS, slow as molasses & throws the pkg wherever. No thanks, give me Fedex or USPS any day.

I have a million UPS stores around me, so dropping off would be no problem, but I hate their service. Plus I don't think they deliver to PO boxes.

ETA:  Also, what's to say that shipping USPS (or Fedex) wouldn't wind up with USPS last mile service anyway! 

[somany]

Maybe the USPS problems will go away after the election. I don't plan to change. It's convenient to have stuff picked up, which I started using again due to COVID. It's been reliable, except when I shipped a $300 purse and it wasn't scanned. It did eventually get scanned, and when I let my carrier know it had been a problem, she has been very diligent since then (she thought scanning the pickup order was sufficient, which seems to indicate there was a breakdown in the training and follow up somewhere along the line). The only time I run into a problem now is when there is a sub, and then they don't get here anywhere near as early as the regular carrier does.

[chapeaunoir]

I don't see UPS getting stuff to customers any faster than USPS. eBay needs to just start informing buyers that there are delays EVERYWHERE in shipping - what is with these stupid execs and dealing with reality?

[kritter]

I don't know about anywhere else but the campaign mail has got to be slowing the wheels down too. I just checked my Informed delivery and I am getting 7 pieces of campaign mail today following the the 5 pieces that I got yesterday.